oPGA Tour
United States
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Match scheduled:
Last updated: 07-01-2010,
Start: 15:30USA, 20:30UK, GMT.
PGA Tour 2010 - The Plantation Course.
Kapalua Resort :: Maui, Hawaii, USA.
Overview
The PGA Tour season gets underway for the 12th consecutive year at the Plantation Course in Maui, Hawaii with The SBS Championship (formerly The Mercedes-Benz Championship).
Only players who won a PGA tournament in 2009 are eligible and a total of 28 players go to post. The only absentees from this year's field are Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Henrik Stenson.
There is no cut this week so players are never completely out of contention after the first two days. In 2005 Stuart Appleby came from the back of the field after day one to win.
Past experience is beneficial with only two rookie winners in the last decade (Sergio Garcia 2002 and Daniel Chopra 2008).
Last Time Out
Geoff Ogilvy opened with a 67 and held a one shot lead over Ernie Els, Kenny Perry and Johnson Wagner. A second round 68 saw him maintain a one shot lead over D.J. Trahan with 36 holes to play.
A faultless eight-under par third round gave him control of the tournament and a six-shot lead heading into the final round. After a nervous start with four bogeys in his first eight holes Ogilvy went on post a 68 and win by six shots leading wire-to-wire in the process.
Course
The Plantation Course was fashioned from the old fields of a pineapple plantation by designers Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw and offers some of the most spectacular vistas of any course in the world.
The course sits on the side of a hill and has massive elevation changes, long undulating fairways and large contoured greens.
This unique par 73 course, which has one less par three, plays around 7,411 yards.
Fairways
The fairways are amongst widest on the PGA Tour and the course favours longer hitters of the golf ball as players can really 'let rip' off the tee. With seven holes in excess of 500 yards, shorter hitters can struggle to reach the greens in two shots particularly if the wind picks up.
The slopes and contours usually result in the ball running out long distances and drives in excess of 450 yards on the par five 18th are not uncommon.
Greens
Since the course was designed there has been only one major change and that was to the greens in 2005 when they were re-laid with Ultra dwarf Tiff Eagle.
This new Bermuda grass has less grain and rolls faster and truer. After nearly four years the greens have fully bedded in and this year they will roll true and incredibly smooth.
They are currently running at 9.5 on the stimpmeter but will get quicker as the week goes on.
The greens are very large by PGA Tour standards and feature huge slopes. Accurate approach play and good lag putting are the keys to success.
They said
"The weather has been the best in years - 82 and sunny with very light trade winds for the last 3 weeks (no to little rain). The kona winds started blowing yesterday (Monday) and are still around today (Tuesday) at 10-20mph. Tournament forecast is for paradise weather...clear & sunny with very light trades - if that holds true, we can expect some very low scores. The course is playing fairly hard and fast due to lack of rain." Jerry King - Director of Golf Kapalua
Horses for Courses
Stuart Appleby was the undisputed 'King of Kapalua' with a hat trick of victories from 2004 to 2006 but he is not playing this year.
There are only three players in this year's field who have recorded a top three finish in this event - Geoff Ogilvy (1st 2009), Steve Stricker (2nd 2008), Stephen Ames (3rd 2008).
Key Holes
The first two holes have proved the most treacherous over the past few years and most players will struggle at the beginning of each round.
The par fives are key for scoring at Kapalua and each averages nearly half a stroke under par. Players need to make hay on the par fives or they will find themselves falling rapidly down the leaderboard.
Weather
The forecast is perfect with sunny weather and light to medium trade winds at 10-20mph predicted but the nature of the terrain means that the Plantation course has its own micro climate.
The course was designed with the trade wind (northerly) in mind but when the kona wind (southerly) blows the course becomes much more difficult as the longer holes play into wind.
Conclusion
Conditions seem near perfect this year and with the course playing hard and fast expect very low scores during the week.
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